Improvement in combination scissors



PATENT OFFICE,

EDSON CLAPP, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMBINATION SCISSORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 119,918, dated October17, 1871.

To all whom t may concern: i

Be it known that I, EDSON CLAPP, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk andCommonwealth of Massachusetts, have made an invention of Improvements inCombination Scissors; and do hereby declare the following' to be a full,clear, and exact description thereof, due reference being had to theaccompanying drawing making part of this specification, and in which-Figine l is an elevation, and Fig. 2 a transverse section of saidinvention.

This invention relates to the combination, with a pair of scissors orshears, otherwise of ordinary construction, of a button-hole cutter,under such an arrangement that the leaf or rest on which the cutter actsshall yield to the iirst impact of such cutter, and by this means obtaina gradual and drawing` cut, which is very effective in dividing thefibers of cloth; and to this end such invention consists in pivoting' tothe side of one handle of a pair of shears a thin plate or cutter, andin disposing` below or opposite the cutting-edge thereof a yielding oran elastic shelf or abutment, against which such edge may abut, thisshelfl forming part of or being an offset of the opposite handle, andbeing disposed obliquely with respect to the cutter in. such manner thatthe forward point of the latter first impinges or abuts against it,while with a continued pressure upon the two handles the shelf yields tosuch pressure until it and the cutter are in parallelism, a drawingstroke or cut being the result.

In order that others may understand the nature of my inventionsufficiently to avail themselves of its advantages by manufacturing it,I will describe the manner in which I produce it.

The accompanying drawing represents at A in Fig. 1 a pair of shears, ofwhich a is the pointed and b the wide blade, the nger or thumb-rest ofthe former being shown at c and ofthe latter at d., while the rivet orfulcrum commonto the two is seen at e. The handle of the blade a isshown at a', and of the blade b at b; and in carrying my improvementsinto practice by a screw or otherwise, iiatwise to the Side of onehandle (preferably to the left when the implement is in the hands of anoperator) a thin plate or cutter, j', which passes by the other handle,and whose lower or outermost edge is reduced to a sharp cutting-edge,while immediately below or opposite such edge I dispose a bar or rest,g, this bar being obtained by an in tegral branch or offset continuedfrom one fingerrest of the handle opposite that carrying the cutter, thesituation of this bar being substantially in alignment and parallelismwith the two blades and their handles, but placed slightly oblique tothe cutter or the cutting-edge of the latter. Sliding to and fro of thebar g and mounted thereupon is a cutter-block or bed, h, the size andarrangement of the cutter f and finger-rest c or d being such that aspace is left between them of greater length than that of the bed. Thesliding block 7L and bar g are provided with a clamp-screw, fi, commonto the two, by which the former is clamped to the lat-ter at any desiredposition opposite the edge of the cutter or removed entirely from thepath of the latter, as occasion may require, the extent of the lap ofthe two determining the size of the button-hole incised in the fabric bythe cutter f.

lt will be observed that, by advancing the cutter-block h to a pointopposite the edge of the cutter and compelling the two handles of theshears to approach each other, the advance point ofthe cutter firstabuts against the said block, while with a continued pressure upon thehandles the block recedes under the pressure and the cutter advancesuntil the two are parallel, a drawing stroke or cut being, as beforestated, the result. The drawing cut last mentioned will effectivelyincise a cloth, which a directly parallel impact of the cutter and bedwould fail to accomplish.

I claim- The combination, with a pair of scissors, of the offset or barg, the cutter-block h, and cutter j', arranged and operating as hereinshown and described.

EDSON CLAPP.

Witnesses:

FRED. CURTIS,

Enw. GRIFFITH. (44.)

